New hires and promotions

About Movers

Movers is the place for news about high-level appointments and promotions in South Florida. Have news we should know about? Then send us an e-mail and include the title of the new position, responsibilities, a phone number, previous position held and color .jpg photos.

Miami Herald News

Sami T. Teittinen has been appointed chief executive officer at Silver Airways. He was chief financial officer. Teittinen has has a bachelor’s in finance and an MBA from the University of Central Florida. He is also a graduate of the Finnish Defense Forces Reconnaissance School and Finnish Business College in Helsinki.

Sami Teittinen has been named chief financial officer at Silver Airways. Before, he was with BBA Aviation PLC as a CFO for aviation flight support. Teittinen has a bachelor’s in finance and an MBA from the University of Central Florida. He is also a graduate of the Finnish Defense Forces Reconnaissance School and Finnish Business College in Helsinki.

Gregory
M. Santín is now senior vice president and commercial real estate relations
manager for Florida Community Bank’s South Florida
region. He has more than 20 years of commercial real estate and financial
industry experience and was previously the vice president, asset recovery
officer, and vice president, commercial real estate lender at The Bank of New
York Mellon.

Alexandre “Alex” de Gunten has been
selected as the business development officer of HEICO Corp.’s flight support
group, whose main goal is to further strengthen HEICO’s relationships with the
leading global airlines. He has an MBA from Queen’s University.

Luis Zuniga has been
named director of aviation pricing and contract administration at Eulen
America. He previously worked at Spirit Airlines in several roles, including
manager of marketing in Latin America and manager in revenue management.

Avery A. Dial, Peter J. Melaragno, Richard P. Morris, and Yelena Shneyderman have been promoted to shareholders at the law firm of Fowler White Burnett, P.A.

Dial is a member of the firm’s insurance group. He focuses his practice on products liability, professional and medical liability, general liability, bad faith and transportation issues. He joined the firm in 2009 and works out of the Fort Lauderdale office.

Melaragno focuses his practice on toxic tort litigation. He represents manufacturers, distributors, insurers and retailers in the defense of claims that arise from alleged exposure to hazardous materials. He has been with the firm since 2003 and works out of the Miami office.

Morris is a member of the firm’s aviation group. His practice focuses on the defense of casualty and commercial litigation claims involving aviation, maritime, premises and products liability, medical malpractice, and general liability. He has been with the firm for three years and works at the Miami office.

Shneyderman is a member of the insurance group. She represents major insurance carriers and focuses her insurance defense practice on coverage disputes and bad faith litigation. She has worked with the firm for the last three years at the Fort Lauderdale office.

Barrington Irving has joined the board of directors of Teach For America for the Miami-Dade region. He will help guide the evolution of Teach For America in Miami-Dade County. He is the founder of Experience Aviation, a Miami-based nonprofit that encourages youth to explore careers in aviation through education programs designed to build math, science, reading, and problem-solving skills. He secured his place in history in 2007 as the youngest person and first black pilot to fly solo around the globe.

Steven M. Harper has been promoted to partner in the Miami law firm Harper Meyer Perez Hagen O'Connor Albert & Dribin LLP. He was an associate with the firm for five years. He will focus his practice on aviation and maritime finance, taxation and regulation. He also works in the firm’s international and corporate practice groups, structuring corporate entities via shareholder and partnership agreements that enhance international tax and estate planning goals, and in structuring licensing, distribution and other cross-border transactions.

Tony Lefebvre has been promoted to senior vice president and chief operating officer at Spirit Airlines. He was serving as senior vice president for airports, customer service and inflight. He replaces Kenneth McKenzie, who has accepted a position at Airbus North America. Before joining Spirit in 2005, Lefebvre served for three years as managing director, Europe for US Airways, where his responsibilities covered airport operations, sales and marketing in that region.

MacAdam Glinn has been rehired at Skanska USA as vice president for business development. He will be based in the company’s Dania Beach office. He held a similar role with the company before leaving to finish a law degree. He also served as senior manager for business development with Parsons, where he focused mainly on aviation.